Cambridge Scholars Publishing Variation in Folklore and Language

Variation is a universal phenomenon permeating language, culture, and entire worldviews. This book analyses issues related to both specific and common variations in folklore and language as signifiers of culture and worldview. The articles here are dedicated to different genres and forms, including spoken and written language, dancing and singing, and festivities, and involve different aspects of variation. Variation is conceptualised here as the main basis of folklore dynamics and a major issue of typology. A significant part of the volume is dedicated to variations of myths and motifs, creativity, intertextuality, and transmediality. About the Author Piret Voolaid is a Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Folkloristics of the Estonian Literary Museum, and an Executive Manager of the Centre of Excellence in Estonian Studies. She defended her PhD in Estonian and Comparative Folklore at the University of Tartu, Estonia, in 2011. Her current research interests include minor forms of folklore, the Internet, and sports lore. She has compiled comprehensive academic databases of the subgenres of Estonian and Slovenian riddles and a database of graffiti. She has published around 100 academic studies on these topics. Saša Babič is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, currently working on a project at the Estonian Literary Museum, an Associate of the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and Assistant Professor in Literary Studies at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. Her main focus is minor folklore forms and their integration with culture within the framework of folkloristics, ethnolinguistics, and linguistic anthropology. She has written a number of scientific papers on these topics and a book on aesthetics in short folklore forms, and established the first online database of Slovenian folklore riddles.